The Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce is home to the region's chapter of SCORE (Service Corp of Retired Executives), also known as Counselor's to America's Small Business. SCORE is a national program sponsored by the Small Business Administration that uses volunteers with many years of business experience to provide complementary advice and information. Our local SCORE Chapter hosts appointment hours on Thursdays to visit with current or budding entrepreneurs. During an appointment, counselors can discuss various topics with you. The group also hosts periodic workshops on starting a business. For an appointment, contact Shelia Heard at (318) 677-2536 or by email at shelia@nledf.org. For more information on SCORE you can visit their website at www.score.org

Other valuable resource organizations include:

Small Business Development Centers - Federally sponsored centers typically based at an area university to provide counseling, training and information to people in business or those who wish to start one. We recommend you visit with staff at one of our three SBDC locations:

Louisiana State University Shreveport (Shreveport)
Northwestern State University (Natchitoches)
Louisiana Tech University (Ruston).

 Incubators - Many entrepreneurs take advantage of an incubator, which usually is a facility with value added services and staff to support companies through the early stages of their development. Northwest Louisiana has specialized incubators and general business incubators. Check out our area incubators to see which one might be right for you.

Metro/Regional Business Incubator (Shreveport)
Southern University's Women and Minority Incubator (Bossier City)
BIOSpace1, a life science and technology related incubator (Shreveport)

Also be sure to review the informational categories listed on right side of this page.